Apparatus for ejecting ashes.



W. S. PARSONS.

APPARATUS FOR EJEGTING ASHES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 4, 1911.

1,131,951, Patented Mar.16,1915.

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W. S. PARSONS.

APPARATUS FOR EJECTING ASHES. APPLIGATION FILED AUG. 4, 1911.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

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UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

WILLIALM STEEL PARSONS, OF LADYWELL, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO J. STONE & COMPANY LIMITED, OF DEPTFORD, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR EJECTING ASHES.

Application filed August 4, 1911.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, WILLIAM STEEL PARSONS, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 131 Embledon road, Ladywell, in the county of Kent, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Ejecting Ashes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for discharging or ejecting ashes, clinkers or other refuse from ships, the apparatus concerned being of the type comprising a hopper in which is deposited the material to be expelled, and a water circulatory system comprising the discharge pipe, to which system the ashes are admitted from the hopper and are discharged by the stream of water. The invention also concerns that type of discharging or ejecting apparatus in which there are provided means, such as pistons energized by pressure changes set up in the discharge pipe, for automatically controlling the valve which admits the passage of ashes from the hopper to the circulatory system and the water supply to the hopper itself.

According to this invention the pump is adapted to deliver through a contracted nozzle or opening into a space below the hopper and the delivery pipe from such hopper is flared or reversely coned and is in operative relation with the nozzle with the object of causing the ashes to be sucked into the discharge pipe by the stream of water as it passes through the space. According to the investigations of Venturi the now well known fact was established that when water flows through a duct which is constricted at a certain point and beyond that point is again gradually increased in diameter, the pressure at the constriction or smallest diameter is much less than the pressure in the spaces of larger diameter on either side of the constriction, whereas the velocity is greater. In fact the pressure can be considerably reduced in this way. It will therefore be seen that by connecting the hopper to the point where the reduction in pressure is set up a suction is exerted upon the contents of the hopper which contents upon arriving at the constriction aforesaid are forcibly carried into the discharge pipe by the high velocity of flow at such point. These improvements further provide for the reduced pressure or vacuum which is Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915. Serial No. 642,373.

set up by the pump discharge to be applied to one side of the piston or moving part of the motor or engine which controls the hopper valve as aforesaid so that when the discharge from the pump is strong enough to create sufficient reduction of pressure or vacuum upon one side of such piston, the latter having atmospheric pressure on the other side will be forced in one direction while motion in the opposite direction is caused by the pressure due to the head of sea water or other water when the pump discharge falls. The said motor may also be adapted to open the valve for supplying water to the hopper when the hopper is opened and to shut off the water supply when the hopper valve is closed.

The engine may be governed by a hydraulic governor suitably mounted on the pump casing or in some other appropriate place in the water circulatory system subject to variation of pressure, and a water supply may be provided and so controlled as to rinse the hopper valve and its seat preferably before the valve closes.

The apparatus is suitably but not necessarily arranged between the stokehole floor and the inner skin of the double bottom of the ship, or between the outer and inner skins and moreover it is possible to construct the apparatus of such dimensions as will permit of placing it in any convenient space beneath the floor plates and between the frames of merchant vessels as now constructed according to Lloyds rules. Therefore I believe I am the first to construct an ash ejector in which the ashes to be ejected are delivered between two nozzles or cones that cooperate to form a jet or stream of fluid. I believe I am also the first to employ a jet or stream of fluid, specifically sea water, having a part of low pressure and high velocity, deliver the ashes to said jet or stream at the low pressure point and subsequently cause said jet or stream of fluid with the ashes or other material taken up thereby to lose velocity and re-acquire pressure.' This re-acquiring of pressure enables the jet or stream to discharge under water, hence the discharge must take place against a hydraulic head, and this head will vary in accordance with the position of the outlet to the sea. If the outlet is adjacent the keel of a vessel this hydraulic head will be the height of water above the keel, but if the outlet is through the side of the vessel the rolling of the vessel will vary the hydraulic head at the outlet thirty feet, more or less, and at times the discharge opening will not be under water at all. I also believe that I am the first to cause the automatic opening of a valve controlling the supply of ashes to the jet from the delivery side of the jet.

Other details of the invention will hereinafter be more particularly described and claimed.

In order to enable this invention to be readily understood reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a central longitudinal vertical section of one form of apparatus embodying the present improvements. Fig. 2 is a similar view of another form of ap paratus difiering from Fig. 1 chiefly in the arrangement of an ashes discharge duct leading from the hopper to the water circulatory system. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of a portion of a ships bottom and showing in elevation, but to a smaller scale, apparatus similar to that seen in Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is a plan section on the line IV-IV of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, Figs. 1, 3 and 5, the hopper a is suitably provided with the well known crushing rollers b geared together and driven, as shown only in Figs. 3 and 5, by chain 0 and sprocket wheels from a "counter-shaft (I provided with a known breakable or slipping coupling e keyed to the shaft d and the sprocket wheel f connected to the said coupling is driven by a chain 9 from a sprocket wheel hkeyed to the shaft 3' of the engine 70, which also drives a centrifugal pump Z provided with a suction pipe m and a delivery or discharge pipe n. The casing of the pump isprovided with a hydraulic governor 0 of known construction which actuates a valve 10 in the steam pipe g. The delivery pipe 11, is connected to a casing 1 best seen in Fig. 3, and has a nozzle 3, Fig. 1, therein delivering into a chamber or space t below and to one side of the hopper a. The other end of the easing 7" is provided with a nozzle 21 of opposite taper and the discharge pipe 02 is continued and ultimately passes through the side of the ship as seen in Fig. 3. The second nozzle may be considered as a combining nozzle through which the jet containing the ashes passes and is prevented from breaking or scattering. The second nozzle u is provided with a cone or cones leaving an annular space '0 or spaces communicating by a pipe to with a cylinder 00 in which slides a piston or plunger 3 the said cylinder at its other end being open to the atmosphere by a port 2. One end of the piston rod 1 carries a valve 2 for opening and closing the discharge orifice from the hopper a, while the other end of the said rod 1 has mounted thereon a small piston 3 working in a small cylinder 4 open on one side to the low pressure end of the cylinder 00 and on the other side through a hollow piston valve 5 to a pipe 6 in communication with the sea. This tial vacuum set up in one end of the cylinder 7 m bythe suction action of the jet passing by the annular space 12. The discharge pipe is suitably provided as usual with a gate valve 11 and the interior of the casing 25 is provided with the sparge pipe 12 for the supply of Water to rinse the valve 2 and its seating at the base of the hopper a. The chain for communicating motion from the countershaft to the crushing rollers is suitably inc'los'ed in a casing 13, Fig. 3, or if desired the crushing rolls may be driven by bevel gearing and a shaft so as to take up less room 'on the stokehold floor,'which would then be almost entirely clear except for the space occupied by the delivery pipe n of the centrifugal pump.

In operation as long as the jet is powerful enough to effect the discharge of-the ashes or other'material, there will be sulficient suction through the pipe w owing to the action of the stream flowing past the annular space 4;, to reduce the pressure on one side of the piston 3 so as to allow the atmospheric pressure acting upon the other side to force back the piston to open the valve 2 against the action of the head of water upon the small piston 3. As soon, however, as the jet diminishes or ceases, owing to a stoppage of the engine,'or other breakdown the pressure in the pipe to will rise, so that the pressures upon both sides of the piston 3 will be equalized or nearly so and the pressure upon the piston 3 will at once effect the closing of the valve 2. Therefore it is not essential that the gate valve 11 be closed immediately a breakdown occurs or the jet ceases, as the automatic closing of the valve 2, the opening of which de pends upon the su'fliciency of the suction set up by the jet, insures safety against fiooding due to back-flow of the sea. 7

The delivery pipe connection a is provided with a mouth piece u, preferably conforming in t'aperto the connection a, and which is readily removable in order to permit of a new mouth piece being fitted into the connection 11 which is the point at which the greatest amount of wear occurs.

The construction illustrated by Fig. 2 is very similar to that shown in Fig. 1, but in this modification a branch pipe or extension 14: from the lower end of the hopper passes into an enlargement or chamber 25 into which the water pipe 02 discharges. The stream of water however, in this arrangement, passes all around the straight or nozzle portion 15 of the branch 14: and the outlet from the chamber t is constricted as at 16 in the vicinity of the orifice of the nozzle 15. The branch 14: is also suitably provided with an opening 17 to wet and carry along the ashes to the stream of moving water. As in the arrangement described with reference to Fig. 1, the outlet at is flared or coned in the opposite sense to the conicity of the nozzle 8 provided by the constriction 16. The ashes thus pass into the center of the stream of water instead of being taken up exteriorly by the jet as in the first construction and thereby any possibility of chafing or wearing the conical nozzles s or u by the gritty matter coming into contact therewith is avoided.

The construction of valve 2 and the means for causing it to open and close are similar to the arrangement described with reference to Fig. 1. The valve 2 is suitably provided with a scraper or scrapers consisting for example of round disks 18, 18, fixed on an extension of the piston rod 1 and serving to clear away any ashes or clinker-s from the discharge opening of the hopper before the valve closes, the jet or sparge pipe 12 serving to wash the valve seat.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse comprising in combination, a hopper, a water duct having a sub-aqueous discharge end, forcing means for driving a stream of water through said duct, cones reversely arranged in operative relation to each other in said duct, and a discharge connection between said hopper and a point in said duct between said reversely arranged cones for the purpose set forth.

2. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a water duct having a sub-aqueous discharge end, the passage-way through which is constricted at one point, forcing means for driving a stream of water through said duct, and a discharge connection between said hopper and the constricted portion of said duct, for the purpose set forth.

3. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, a contracted noz zle in said chamber and an expanding noz zle at the exit of said chamber, said nozzles being in operative relationship and having a sub-aqueous discharge, substantially as set forth.

4. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, a valve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber, an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, a pressure responsiy e means operatively connected with said valve and a connection between said pressure responsive means and said recess, substantially as set forth.

5. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, a valve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber, an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, a cylinder, a piston therein, a rod connecting said piston with said valve, and a pipe connecting said cylinder on one side of said piston with said recess, said cylinder having a pressure port on the opposite side of said piston, substantially as set forth.

6. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and chamber, a valve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber, an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, a pressure responsive device operatively connected with said valve, a connection between a suction port of said device and said recess, whereby the suction set up by said nozzle arrangement influences said pressure responsive device in the direction for opening said valve, and constantly operative valve closing means connected with said valve, substantially as set forth.

7. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, a valve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber, an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, a cylinder, a piston therein, a rod connecting said piston with said valve, a pipe connecting said cylinder on one side of said piston with said recess, said cylinder having a pressure port on the opposite side of said piston and a plunger connected with said piston and adapted to move in its cylinder in one direction against a head of water, substantially as set forth.

8. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, a valve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber, an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, a pressure responsive means operatively connected with said valve, a connection between said pressure responsive means and said recess, a water supply to the interior of said hopper, and a valve for controlling said supply arranged in operative relation with said pressure responsive means, substantially as set forth. 7

9. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, a chamber, a connection between said hopper and said chamber, avalve in said connection, a contracted nozzle entering said chamber,an expanding nozzle on the exit from said chamber, said expanding nozzle having a recess in its wall, pressure responsive means operatively connected with said valve, a connection between said pressure responsive means and said recess, a water supply to the interior of said hopper, a flushing valve controlling said supply, means constantly tending to close said flushing valve, and a device connected with said pressure responsive means and adapted to open said flushing valve whenever said pressure responsive means operates sufliciently to open the hopper valve, substantially as set forth.

10. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, an ejector consisting of reversely arranged conical nozzles, a discharge connection from said hopper adapted to deliver matter from said hopper to a point between said nozzles, a valve normally closing said discharge connection, pressure responsive means operatively connected with said valve, and a connection from said pressure responsive means to one of said nozzles, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

11. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, an ejector consisting of reversely arranged conical nozzles, a discharge connection from said hopper adapted to deliver matter from said hopper to a point between said nozzles, a valve normally closing said discharge pressure responsive means operatively connected with said valve, a pipe connection between said pressure responsive means and the low pressure nozzle of said ejector, a water supply for the interior of said hopper and a valve normally closing said supply and adapted to be opened by the operation of said pressure responsive means, substantially as set forth.

12. Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, an ejector consisting of reversely arranged conical nozzles, a discharge connection from said hopper adapted to deliver matter from said hopper to a point between said nozzles, a valve normally closing said discharge, a cylinder, a piston reciprocable in said cylinder, a connection between said 7 piston and said valve, a connection between sure nozzle of said ejector, the other end of 1 said cylinder having a port constantly open to the atmosphere, and a plunger connected with said piston and constantly acted upon by a head of water in such a direction as to oppose the movement of said piston in the direction for opening said valve, substantially as set forth.

13.,Apparatus for discharging ashes and refuse, comprising in combination, a hopper, an ejector consisting. of reversely arranged conical nozzles, a discharge connection from said hopper adapted to deliver matter from said hopper to a point between said nozzles, a valve normally closing said discharge, a cylinder, a piston reciprocable in said cylinder, a connection between said piston and said valve, a connection between one end of said cylinder and the low pressure nozzle of said ejector, the other end of said cylinder having a port constantly open to the atmosphere, a cylinder having one end normally open to water supplied under pressure due to a head, a plunger in said cylinder, a connection between said plunger and said piston, a pipe connected between the supply to said cylinder and the interior of said hopper, a hollow cylindrical valve adapted to constantly pass water to said plunger but to normally close said pipe to the water supply and means constantly tending to hold said cylindrical valve in the n0rmal position, saidvalve being so disposed as to be forced to an open position when said plunger is sufliciently moved by said piston, substantially as set forth.

1 Apparatus for discharging matter from ships comprising in combination, a hopper, a nozzle combination, forcing means adapted to discharge a stream of water through said nozzle combination, a connection from said hopper to a space between nozzles belonging to said combination, pres sure responsive means controlling the feed through said connection, and a connection between said pressure responsive means and said combination, substantially as set forth.

15. In apparatus for ejecting ashes from vessels, the combination with two spaced cooperating fluid ejecting nozzles having a sub-aqueous discharge, and means to supply supply ejecting fluid from one to the other of said nozzles and means controlled by said jet to supply ash to the space between the nozzles whereat the velocity of jet is a maximum and its pressure a minimum.

18. In apparatus for ejecting ashes and other refuse, the combination with means to produce an ejecting fluid jet; of means to deliver ashes to said jet and mechanism controlled by said jet from its discharge side to control the delivery from said delivery means.

19. In apparatus for ejecting ashes and other refuse from marine vessels, the combination with means to produce an ejecting fluid jet; of means to deliver ashes to said jet, and mechanism controlled by said jet and operated by hydrostatic pressure to control the delivery from said delivery means.

20. In apparatus for ejecting ashes and other refuse from marine vessels, the combination with means to produce an ejecting fluid jet; of means to deliver ashes to said jet and mechanism automatically operated in one directionby the suction produced by the jet and in the other direction by hydrostatic pressure upon a sufiicient reduction of said suction, said mechanism controlling the delivery of ashes to the jet.

21. In apparatus for ejecting ashes and other refuse from marine vessels, the combination with means to produce an ejecting fluid et having a sub-aqueous discharge and having a portion thereof of maximum velocity and minimum pressure; of means to deliver ashes to said port-ion under suction produced thereby, mechanism automatically operated in one direction by hydrostatic pressure to close said delivery means and operated in the opposite direction to open said delivery means by the suction of said jet and against the hydrostatic pressure.

22. In apparatus for ejecting ashes and other refuse, the combination with means to produce an ejecting fluid jet capable of inducing a partial vacuum; of means under the influence of said vacuum to deliver refuse to said jet, mechanism to control the delivery of refuse from said means and under simultaneous opposing hydrostatic and pneumatic pressures, and means controlled by said mechanism to deliver water to the refuse delivering means.

23. In an ash discharger of the hydraulic type, discharging below the water line, means for automatically opening the discharge port when the hydraulic stream has attained a suflicient velocity-pressure to prevent the outside water from entering, and means for automatically closing said port before the pressure of the hydraulic stream is sufficiently reduced to permit the outside water to enter.

24. In an ash discha-rger of the hydraulic type, the combination with a pressure pump, of an ash discharge pipe emptying into the stream from said pump, and means operated by the pressure of the pump for opening the valve of the discharge pipe when the pressure of said stream is greater than the pressure of the outer water, and means for closing said valve while said pump-pressure is still slightly in excess of the pressure of the outer water.

25. In an ash discharger, the combination with a hydraulic pressure system, of an ash hopper adapted to dump into said system, and a valve for said hopper opened by the excess of pressure in the hydraulic system over the ocean water and closed by the pres sure of the ocean water when said pressure is but slightly less than the pressure in the hydraulic system.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM STEEL PARSONS.

Witnesses:

W. MoRBEY, W. A. EDY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents, Washington, D. G. 

